Archive for the 'Law School Experience' Category

Just Answer My Question!

Maybe it’s just the heat, but I’m a bit frustrated at my school. The law school cafe isn’t open during the summer. I’m still waiting on grades (just one left, though). The financial aid office hasn’t been very communicative. So I’m probably over-reacting to a minor exchange I had with the career office this week.

Let me preface this by saying that I’m not seriously looking for a job. I am however trying to figure out what I’m going to do with this degree (answers range from staying where I am to working for the public defender). That means if there are chances to interview or talk with people in the legal profession, I’ll take them.

This week’s exchange with the career office left with the same question I’ve had several times since I started law school at Catholic U: Would it hurt to JUST ANSWER MY QUESTION?

We’ve been getting e-mails about fall recruiting on campus. I noticed a link to the Fall Recruiting packet during a recent login to our online jobs database. So I read through it and hadn’t seen anything about whether 2Es could participate. I returned to the database and noticed that most (perhaps all) of the employers interviewing on campus are only interviewing students who are 2D, 3D, 3E, and 4E. Makes sense, right? You want to catch students during their last summer.

I was still curious, however, as to whether there were opportunities for 2Es during fall recruiting. If there were I’d at least submit my resume. If there weren’t I wouldn’t go through the trouble of updating my resume, etc. So I emailed the career office, asking if there would be chances for 2Es to interview during fall recruiting and that I had reviewed the packet and the OCI opportunities and wasn’t sure. The answer I got was: “Follow the provided link to our Fall Recruiting packet. It contains all of the information for participation and deadlines. Let us know if you have any other questions.”

Of course, I went back to the packet and noticed that the definition of “all students” did NOT include 2Es. So I got my answer. But obviously I had missed that in my review of the packet. Would it have been so hard to just say: “Employers don’t typically interview 2Es during fall recruiting, but we’re happy to sit down to discuss options with you.”

One answer (the one I got) says: do it yourself. The other one says: here’s how we can help.

I know which one I wish I was paying for.

Top 10 Things I Hate About Law School

A Top Ten list is like penicillin, the catch-all means of remedying writer’s block, and I’ve had the bird flu of writer’s block of late. So, thought I’d put together some lists of stuff I like and hate about law school, hopefully with our loyal readers adding to the random stuff I include.

So, the Top Ten Things I Hate About Law School are:

10. Classmates with long fingernails. Talk about distracting during exams.

9. The commute. One hour after a day’s work is a bit much.

8. The hostage situation that occurs with our grades after each semester.

7. Professors who confuse their own hypo by, for example, mixing up the party’s names.

6. None of the restaurants on campus being open on the weekend.

5. No real choice in registering for staple courses for evening students.

4. The law school scheduling mandatory activities during business hours.

3. The law school scheduling two exams within 48 hours of each other.

2. The law school not sending enough exams to the exam room. (this happened twice this spring)

1. Evening students quitting their day jobs while still going to evening school.

What did I miss?

Where, O Where Are My %$$#(& Grades?

The Great Waiting continues. Much weeping and gnashing of teeth accompanies each visit to Cardinal Station, our school’s site for students to pay bills, register, and receive grades. 23 days since our last exam and 29 since our first, there still no grades.

The only grade I have so far is from Lawyering Skills and that class ended in April with our Appellate Brief. Dr. Bombay wondered last week whether other schools run on similar timelines. So, do you? Are you still waiting for Spring semester grades? When you were in school did you wait long? Did you even care how long it took to get grades back? Were you ever prevented from getting a job or internship by delays in receiving grades.

Continue reading ‘Where, O Where Are My %$$#(& Grades?’

No Drinking In Class

One of the things I was rather surprised by during my first year of law school was the number of rules that professors had regarding behavior of students in class. Perhaps my age is getting the best of me, but I had assumed that the days when professors had to lecture students on raising their hands, not eating a meal during class, holding conversations with neighbors, surfing the internet on laptops and other disruptive behavior ended when I left undergrad. And that was ten years ago.

Of course, when I was in undergrad no one but the tools ever brought a laptop to class.

I am a big fan of limited rules in class - I would rather let my fellow students police behavior through good old-fashioned peer pressure than waste class time having the professors do it. I’m sure I can do a better job getting my neighbor to quit surfing Perez Hilton in class than the professor can.

Continue reading ‘No Drinking In Class’

Ennui.

:(n) a feeling of utter weariness and discontent resulting from satiety or lack of interest; boredom.

So exams are roughly 3 weeks away, and I could not care less. Sure, I’m aware of the effect that positive (or negative) grades can have on my overall academic and career trajectory, but I’m boiled cabbage compared with the ball of fire I was last semester. What’s worse is that given the way that our year long classes work, I’ll wind up getting final grades for 15 credits worth of course work, which is the same as the full timers. Still, my thoughts seem to stray (in no particular order) to golf, my folks place at the beach, and playing Pai Gow Poker at Harrah’s. I’m comforted in knowing that I’m not alone in feeling this way. When I broached the subject with Pakistani (Kazakhstani ?) Princess and the Sherpa the other night, their collective response mirrored mine in both tone and tempo.

So other than call in Underdog, what are we supposed to do? Continue reading ‘Ennui.’

Last Lawyering Skills Class

Last Lawyering Skills Class + Heineken = Recipe For Success

Appellate Brief Haiku

Submit your very own Haiku honoring (slandering?) your 1L Appellate Brief. All schools welcome.

Here’s mine:

You red clad devil.

Your page limit frustrates me.

Can’t wait to burn you.*

* after I submit you, get a grade, and get you back, of course. you don’t get off that easy.